1. Field of the Disclosure
Embodiments of the disclosure relate in general to the field of computers and similar technologies, and in particular to software utilized in this field. Still more particularly, it provides a system, method, and computer-usable medium for remote deposit of funds into a financial account from a point of purchase terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Banking customers often choose a bank out of convenience. For example, a bank with a local branch may be chosen even though the customer may prefer a relationship with a different bank that may not be conveniently located. In general, the convenience factor relates to making deposits rather than withdrawals or other services. Today, automated teller machines (ATMs) are ubiquitous and their associated networks allow access to practically any financial institution. While the interconnection of these ATMs makes it convenient to make a withdrawal and balance inquiries, deposits can only be made to ATMs that are operated by the customer's financial institution. Even when such deposits are made, the financial value they represent is unavailable for use by the bank customer until they are physically collected and processed.
Currently, there are a large number of merchants (e.g., food and convenience stores, etc.) that accept funds for the payment of bills (e.g., utilities, etc.) on behalf of their customers. In some cases, these payments are made by accessing the afore-mentioned ATM networks from an employee-operated point of sale (POS) terminal. In other cases, a customer's check is scanned and the resulting digitized image is used to originate a transfer of payment directly from the customer's bank account to the bank account of the payee.
However, merchants that currently accept cash and checks for walk-in payments are unable to accept deposits on behalf of a bank's customers. In view of the foregoing, there is a need to adapt the existing walk-in payment infrastructure to accommodate cash and check deposits into checking, savings, 529, 401K, mutual fund, brokerage, and other financial accounts. Furthermore, the bank customer's account should be credited almost immediately if the deposit is cash. In addition, there is a need to perform real-time account validation to ensure that both the financial account the check is drawn upon and the financial account receiving the deposit is valid.